For the 49th time in his career, Tom Brady led a game-winning drive in the fourth-quarter or overtime of a regular-season game, but unlike most of his other drives, this one came with some controversy due to an offensive pass interference no-call that came with under 30 seconds left to play in Tampa Bay’s 31-29 win.
On a second-and-10 from the Cowboys‘ 42-yard line with 24 seconds left, Brady dropped back to pass and he quickly found Chris Godwin, who was being covered on the play by Jourdan Lewis.
As the ball came down, Godwin appeared to push Lewis out of the way so that he could make the catch. The apparent shove worked because Godwin ended up coming down with the ball for a 24-yard gain that took Tampa Bay all the way down to the Cowboys’ 18-yard line.
Here’s a closer look at the contact that occurred between Godwin and Lewis before the ball got to them.
Despite the contact from both players, the officiating crew decided not to throw a flag on the play. Former NFL referee Terry McAulay, who now works as the rules official for NBC, was asked about the play on the broadcast and he said he definitely would have called offensive pass interference.
If an OPI flag had been thrown, the Buccaneers would have faced a second-and-20 from their own 48-yard line while trailing 29-28 with just 18 seconds left and zero timeouts. Although it’s certainly possible they still could have won in that situation, it would have been much more difficult.
Cowboys fans took to Twitter after the game to complain about the no-call.
Even people who hate the Cowboys thought that offensive pass interference should have been called.
This is actually the second year in a row that the Cowboys had to deal with a controversial interference play that went against them in their opener. In a Week 1 game against the Rams last year, the Cowboys were called for OPI on a 47-yard pass play that would have put them in field goal range with under 30 seconds left to play. However, after the penalty was enforced, they weren’t able to move the ball and they lost 20-17.
In Thursday’s game, the Buccaneers were able to kicker a 36-yard field goal to win after Godwin’s catch. If the officials had thrown the flag, it’s very possible that the Cowboys could have walked out of Raymond James Stadium with an upset win. For our full takeaways from the game, be sure to click here.
